Climate Change
Governments and organisations across the world are considering what a meaningful response to climate change looks like. As we deal with this wicked problem we need more democracy not less. We need citizens to be at the centre of the decisions about what these policies and actions look like. At Shared Future we are experimenting with what these different tools of democracy can look like and how they can drive the action citizens want and need.
Deliberative Democracy & Climate Change
Many of us feel stuck. Some in positions of power (politicians, business owners and others) feel stuck about how much public support there may be for certain policies and how to sustain the political mandate for action, some citizens feel policies are being done to them with little opportunity to input and influence and other citizens feel stuck as they want to take action themselves but feel powerless to do so.
An investment in quality community engagement that sees citizens as an asset that should be central to our response can address all these issues and help free us up to respond meaningfully to the challenge.
We have designed and delivered deliberative engagement processes in a wide variety of settings using a range of approaches. We have organised over ten deliberative processes related to climate change; including the first climate change themed Citizens Jury in the UK in Leeds in 2019, a jury at town level in Kendal in 2020, a district assembly North of Tyne Climate Change Citizen’s Assembly as well as processes that address specific policy issues for example the Wandsworth Citizens Assembly on Air Quality and a Climate Jury with social housing tenants.
We have worked with a range of organisations from City Councils (e.g. Preston City Council) to the Climate Change Committee and from Housing Associations to Town Councils (e.g. Shipley Town Council) and most recently organised the UKs first deliberation on climate change adaptation and sea level rise at Bude in Cornwall.
In other places, including Lancaster in 2023 we have experimented with bringing a number of approaches together to strengthen citizen voice on climate change. As part of the national Local Climate Engagement programme we trained City Council personnel and then led a series of community engagement activities on the issue of travel, including the online platform Polis, the training of Community Researchers and a series of deliberative workshops.
As a leader on climate change community engagement in the UK, we have produced best practice guidelines on Climate Assemblies and Juries, written academic papers and contributed to the work of KNOCA (The Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies)
How we can help
We can design, organise and facilitate high quality community engagement processes on climate change related topics.
We train and support people to run their own quality community engagement for example working with local authorities in Derbyshire and Lancaster and supporting the Town Council in Shipley to run their own Climate Jury.
We undertake research, write blogs and toolkits as well as running projects.
Our vision is that our response to climate change is driven by quality and meaningful community engagement with deliberative processes like citizens’ juries and assemblies become a normal part of a well-functioning democracy. Please talk to us if you share this vision.
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Climate Change
Get access to our reports on climate change and free resources.
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Work with us
We can design, organise and facilitate citizens assemblies and juries on just about any topic of public concern. We have facilitated over 30 processes both in the UK and further afield. They happen both face to face and online, and we adopt creative approaches to ensure everyone can contribute as equals.
